Trying to link too many objects

[EvilActivity]

Hey guys,

 

I've done some makefile upgrading so I have sprite-sheets automatically sliced up and converted into objects. This caused me to end up with a lot of objects (each sprite a separate object), which had me end up with the 'too many objects' error when linking with CL65.

 

Is there a way to merge the objects together before linking them? I was hoping to avoid rewriting the makefile so I have the sprpck sprite output files compiled into one object file, but all searches seem to point into that direction since I can't find any documentation on it. (I believe gcc would have something along the lines of -r/-relocatable).

 

Cheers!

Edited May 24, 2015 by EvilActivity

[+karri]

The way to handle this is to write the objects into a file.

 

In my Makefile every directory participating in the game creates a list of object files like this

 

 

all: $(objects)
        $(TOUCH) objlist
        $(RM) objlist
        for obj in $(objects); do $(ECHO) ../intro/$$obj >> objlist; done

 

In the linking phase I then use something like this:

 

others = \
        @../resident/objlist \
        @../bitmaps/objlist \
        @../shaken/objlist \
        @../sounds/objlist \
        @../intro/objlist \
        @../driving/objlist \
 
all: $(target)

$(target) : $(objects) $(objlists)
        $(CL) -t $(SYS) -o $@ -m lynx.map -C lynx.cfg $(objects) $(others) lynx.lib

 

This is one way to get arount the limitation of too many object files. Another way is to add them to your own library.

[EvilActivity]

That doesn't seem to do the trick for me:

 

 

d:/Projects/Lynx/CC65/bin/cl65 -t lynx -o game.lnx lynx.lib @obj/objlist

ld65: Error: Too many input files

 

There are 334 object files in the obj/objlist btw.

I'll try it with a library instead :-)

Edited May 25, 2015 by EvilActivity

[EvilActivity]

It seems that the linker can't find my sprite data when I put it in a library. Is there something special I need to do before the sprites within a library can be detected?

 

The library is created through "ar65 a sprite.lib sprite.o", while the linker is called with: "cl65 -t lynx -o game.lnx lynx.lib sprite.lib <extra-.lib/.o> game.o".

 

The sprites are created as they are in LX.NET's tutorial, an assembly file created that contains:

.global _sprite
.segment "RODATA"
_sprite: .incbin "sprite.spr"

Which is then assembled into an object with "ca65 -t lynx -o sprite.o sprite.s"

But in the end I get the unresolved external reference:

Unresolved external `_sprite' referenced in:
  game.s(36)
ld65: Error: 1 unresolved external(s) found - cannot create output file

 

[+karri]

The linking order may be important. Put the sprites,lib after game.o

 

You could also try to split the @objlist files into two separate entries like @objlist1 @objlist2. There may be some internal line count limits that cause problems.

[EvilActivity]

The linking order may be important. Put the sprites,lib after game.o

 

You could also try to split the @objlist files into two separate entries like @objlist1 @objlist2. There may be some internal line count limits that cause problems.

 

Oh wow, the order did matter indeed. I thought putting them in front of the object that needs it would make more sense than putting it after it. Thanks karri!

[Shawn Jefferson]

It looks like the limit for ld65 is 256 files.

 

https://github.com/cc65/cc65/blob/master/src/ld65/main.c

 

Check MAX_INPUT_FILES.

[EvilActivity]

It looks like the limit for ld65 is 256 files.

 

https://github.com/cc65/cc65/blob/master/src/ld65/main.c

 

Check MAX_INPUT_FILES.

 

Ah nice, although I'm not going to change anything in the tools, good to know the actual limit. Having the sprites put in a library works perfect.